Indian Jews in the US protest Hitler restaurant in Mumbai

THE Indian Jewish community in the US has strongly protested the naming of an restaurant in Mumbai after Hitler. There are about 300 Jews of Indian origin in the US.

I cannot believe such a thing could happen in India. We want to get this name removed at the earliest, Romiel Daniel, president of the Indian Jewish Congregation US, told The Indian Express.

Daniel, who is an import director with apparel company Ariela Alpha International, said the community has brought this to the notice of Simon Wiesenthal Centre and the Anti-Defamation League seeking their intervention in the matter, which he said is of grave concern to the entire Jewish community.

Simon Wiesenthal Center is an international Jewish human rights organization. The Anti-Defamation League’s aims to stop defamation of the Jewish people worldwide.

The Indian Jewish Congregation of US has also written to the Indian Ambassador in the United States, Ronen Sen, and his Deputy, R. S. Jassal, who was earlier Ambassador to Israel. They need to step in, he said.

The entire community is shocked as to how a restaurant can be named after Hitler who milled more than six million people in holocaust, said Daniel adding that the community in the United States was also seeking opinion from legal experts to change the name of the restaurant. India is the safest heaven for Jews. We have no faced suppression or repression in India, he said adding that this is why the community was surprised when they came to know that a restaurant in Mumbai has been named after Hitler. This will certainly hit the relationship between India and Israel, Daniel said.

In a letter written to owner of the restaurant, Daniel said: Would you as an Indian which I am too, start a restaurant honoring and glorifying General E. H. Dyer, the perpetrator of the Jallianwallah Bagh massacre and name the restaurant General Dyer Jallianwallah Bagh Garden Restaurant?

As an Indian and as a Jew I am appalled that a restaurant could be named using the name Hitler, the devil incarnate, the murderer of six million Jews, the letter said.